WEBVTT - Know the History, Not Just the Moment 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:00.880 I'm Tamika D. 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:03.239 Mallory and it Shit Boy my Son in General. 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:05.640 We are your host of TMI. 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:13.000 Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and Inspiration New Energy. 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:19.439 Hello everybody, this is a new episode of TMI, and 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:22.920 it is the summer. It's August, and so you know, 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.560 things have been a little bit different in terms of 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.080 what we've been doing with the show during this month. 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:29.960 But we will be. 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:35.440 Back to our regularly scheduled programming come September after our 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:39.360 semi vacation, but it's not really a vacation because we 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.040 still have been bringing you all very very important content. 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:48.080 Last week, my son sat down with a group of 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.280 brothers many that I respect, all of them that I respect, 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:55.240 and had a really really powerful conversation and I hope 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:58.160 that you all have an opportunity to listen into that. 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:01.680 We're back to my Son the General. You're back. We're 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:02.720 here for. 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:08.920 Another week, and today we're jumping straight into an interview 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:14.679 with a very very important political and civil rights icon. 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:17.200 We are at the convention. 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:21.600 We're literally in Chicago at the DNC, and so there's 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.400 so much happening. If you could see everything going on 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.640 on the other side, of this device, you. 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:29.960 Would know how how busy it is. 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:34.320 But it was very important for us to bring context 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:36.720 because one of the things that I think we both know, 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.959 my son, is that the Internet is telling us all 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:46.039 types of things. Misinformation, people uninformed, people don't know history, 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:50.640 people really don't understand the road that has been traveled 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:53.840 to get not only to this moment, but the fights 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:57.120 that have taken place and the struggle that has gone 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:01.400 on in our world and certain me in America, in 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:04.840 Black America for a long time. And so we asked 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:08.720 this icon to join us this morning. And if you 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:13.679 don't know who he is, please do your research. We 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:17.560 are talking with doctor Benjamin Chaevs, not just Ben Chavis 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:20.720 we so used to calling him ben Chaevs. His doctor 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:25.560 Benjamin Schaevs. And he his current job is the President 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:31.280 and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. That's the 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:38.080 National Newspaper Publishers Association n NPA. But he has you 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.560 have you are here with us so many other things 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:42.760 that make you a legend. 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:44.000 That's your current. 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:46.680 Work that you are involved in, which is still a 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:52.400 form of activism, telling our stories to us by us 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.400 in Black newspapers all across the country, and I'm shore 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.400 you there. You know it expands beyond that, but you 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:01.920 are truly a legend in the civil rights movement. We 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:03.840 just want to welcome you and thank you so much 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:05.200 for joining us this morning. 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:09.680 Well, thank you, Tamika my son. I'm so honored to 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:13.919 be in your presence. You know, Fredick doesn't said it best. 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:18.960 Freedom is a conscious rugg say. Each generation I'm so 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:23.440 proud of has risen to the occasion. And it's not 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.760 just a simple matter of passion. At the time, I 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:29.680 wish it was that simple. It was really how to 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.519 renew and regenerate our consciousness as a people. Who are 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.520 we in the world, Who are we in America? Not 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:39.920 only what our past has been, but how does our 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.560 pass inform our presence and our future. That's why I'm 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.240 so honored to be here with you at the Democratic 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:51.280 National Convention, this pivotal moment in world history. You know, 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.400 you know, soroart the system. I want you to know 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:57.800 all of my family, my mother, my sisters, my grandmother, 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.680 all akas so I got a lot of pink and 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:02.240 green in Oxford, North Carolina. 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:06.839 Oh so your family, your family picked the right sorority 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:08.560 to be a part of. I just want to make 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.800 sure everybody knows very serious matter. And Vice President Harrison 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:15.920 also an AKA, so you know we're on the right track. 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:20.520 Absolutely absolutely. But I'm a native of Oxford, North Carolina. 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.560 I was born in nineteen forty eight, so I grew 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:27.520 up in the nineteen fifties when everything was racially segregated. 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.560 But you know, even though things were segregated, I learned 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:37.960 so much about black history, black knowledge, black scholarship, black excellence, 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.080 and you know, I didn't know that much about white 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.440 people because I was separated from you know, I knew 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.520 about your question. I knew about a popeive, but I 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:50.479 never saw a white student to my sophomore year in college. 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:53.880 Wow, and what college did you go to that to bend? 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:57.680 The first college was sant of Dustin's College at HBCU 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:01.240 and Ralegh, North Carolina, and transferred to UNC. I was 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.359 a chemistry nator And when I tried to get into 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.920 UH the North Carolina State, which is the white school 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:10.640 or UNC the West, they told me they were not 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:15.960 accepting black students unless I majored in music. That was 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:18.320 I said, no, I want to major in science and 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:23.120 Young Robert music, but that wasn't my field, and so 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.640 I was dissuaded. Which is fine because going to the 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:30.960 HBCU the first couple of years was the best decision 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:33.600 of my life. And uh he gave me a grounder. 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.080 So by the time I transferred to University of North 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.560 Carolina to finish my chemistry degree, I actually was ahead 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:42.200 of the white student. They used to say, well, where 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.680 did you come from? Who taught you this organic chemistry 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:50.920 and physical chemistry? And uh, you know nucle can, I said, 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.400 some black teachers at a black school. That's what talk. 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:58.520 Because you know, I think sometimes we underestimate not only 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.640 where we get education, but how we get our education. 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.159 And so I grew up in the movement. I was 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:09.520 got my na CITP car when I was twelve years old. 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.720 I started working for SELC Doctor my little kingdom. When 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.360 I was fourteen. Put my age up. We're not supposed 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.640 to drive to sixteens. I put my age up. I 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:22.159 had mobility. I was driving. You know, I grew up fast. 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.520 James Bonder now became very close friends and he used 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.440 to tell me them party some writing that the pen 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.200 is powerful them to sow it. So I started writing 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:35.120 for the Black Press when I'm eleven years old in 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:38.440 the sixth grade. And now, as God would have it, 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.159 for the last eleven years, I've been to president of 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.279 the CEO of Other Black Press of America National Newspaper 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:46.960 public and Association. But as to me, could say it 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.360 in the intro, what I do now is informed by 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:55.440 many decades of other struggle. To me, when you have challenges, 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.920 that's preparation. I once asked Reginald Lewis, who was the 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.599 first Black building. I said, Regel, tell me one word 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.839 out of the English language that led to your financial success, 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:10.920 and he said, preparation, preparation. We have to prepare ourselves 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:14.360 to deal with the struggles. We have to prepare ourselves 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.720 to learn. And then I started working in the African 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:22.040 liberation movements in Africa. I joined the a n C. 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:24.160 I used to write for the a n C, the 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:30.360 Afghan Acts and youth publication of the SPARE while I 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.920 was you know, in college and high school. And then 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:38.480 from nineteen sixty three to nineteen sixty eight, I was 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:42.000 the youth coordinator for Selan Crisis Leadership COMPS until the 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.720 day that doctor King was killed in nineteen sixty eighty 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:47.360 and eight. So I've been around the blocks a few times. 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.200 But you know what, my son and Tamika, most of 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:52.440 them sister in the community that they don't know about 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.960 the nap or the mean Man March. They know me 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.679 from the movie Ballet. I was the minister in Bellet. 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.720 You know, I just told you that I was about 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:03.040 I was about to bring that up. 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:03.560 Just now. 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:06.280 I go to anyhood and they said, that's the minister 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.720 from fail. But that shows you the importance though not 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:15.760 only our all tradition, but our our our image, our 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:20.720 visual tradition, particularly now among millennials and generation disease. Not 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:24.080 only what we hear or even what we see us 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:28.000 a hip hop. Hip hop is what you feel. It's 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:30.840 just not what you see, but what you hear is 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:34.640 what you feel. And so I think our movement has 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:37.400 been successful to the extent to which we can not 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.160 only yes, people can feel our impression oh pressure, but 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:45.200 can people feel our liberation and people feel what we 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:48.040 need to do to change our quality of life. And 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.720 that's why I have so much respect for you what 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:54.760 you're and Tanika do, because you help people feel the 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:58.400 reality of our struggle for freedom, justice, and required, and 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:00.480 I'm sorry. I'm gonna give you a short answers to 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:02.040 no no. 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:04.719 I just want to say, first of all, it is 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:06.760 an honor to be able to interview you, to be 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:08.880 able to know you, to be in space with you, 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.120 to get you know, be able to be tutored by 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.080 just listening to you, you know, last night, talking all 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:17.720 the times I've been in your presence, and just hearing 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:21.120 the wisdom that you have and knowing how legendary who 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:25.480 you are. And it's a shame that our youth are 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:30.440 not only no belly, right, is only no belly. But 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.680 when you listen to the history you know that you've 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:35.920 you've been through. I just want to know, like what 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:39.280 what were some of the things that you you picked 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:40.959 up working with doctor King? 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:46.560 Well, I picked up working doctor King. Is that you 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:50.160 know the eloquence behind the podium, The eloquence on the 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:55.760 stage of life is informed by what happens off the stage. 0:09:57.000 --> 0:09:59.880 It's informed by what happens before you get to the 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.400 before you get the mic. You know, before you can 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:05.920 drop the mic. You got a hold of mincy, know 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:09.760 what I'm saying. So as we pick up the mic 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:12.640 of like I'm talking about as we broadcast as back 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:17.199 we're doing now, as we articulate, as we disseminate information. 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:21.800 You know, we're informed by our lived experience, and so 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:25.640 I've been blessed to me and my sign too. I 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:30.160 have had lived experiences with Doctor King, live experiences with 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:35.559 Malcolm X, lived experiences with Minister Farra Con, lived experiences 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:39.000 with doctor Doctor Height, lived experiences with Rose a Pause, 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:45.480 lived experiences, you know, Nelson Mandela winning Mandela. I was 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.200 with Cuban troops on the ground, and I was being 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.120 a fox over to the troops fighting the South African 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:54.719 potactic DA in the mid nineteen eighties. Because one of 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.160 the things I found out that you know, it's one 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:01.640 thing to talk liberation. It's one thing uh engage in armstructure. 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.520 It's another thing to engage in putting your life on 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.959 the front line. You know. Look, I spent most of 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:11.520 the nineteen seventies in prison because I be very honest. 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:13.520 I was mad. I was mad as hell, and they 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.320 killed Doctor King in nineteen sixty eight. But I learned 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:20.280 the channel my anger into something a modus operandi that 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:23.599 could help inspire to make sure his dream was not assassinated. 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:25.520 How long were you incarcerated, doctor. 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:28.040 Ben six and a half years, but I had a 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:30.800 thirty four year sentence. I spent most of the nineteen 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.959 seventies in prison. The women to ten case, that's the 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:37.240 whole I could talk to you about, the whole program 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:39.120 that they just on the Wilmington tent on all I'm 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.600 so proud of the young people and women's in All 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:46.160 Carolina who stood up to racial white supremacy in the 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:51.439 school system. And because they stood up eight high school 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:55.560 student leaders, sixteen seventeen, eighteen year olds, myself, I was 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.160 only twenty three years old and a white anti poverty 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.719 work a woman who was also a hotelmness with ten 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:04.600 of us were sent us to two hundred and eighteen 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:08.400 years in prison, and I had to lunch since thirty four, 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.440 thirty four years. And so the analogy is when I 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:16.319 heard that Donald Trump had thirty four convictions, thirty four felons, 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.040 I said, with damn, I wonder how much sand he's 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:22.040 gonna get it, you know. And of course we got 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:25.559 that time because we bought white supremacy. But one of 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:27.559 the things I learned from doctor King that is. 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:29.800 So big, But I really don't I don't want you. 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:35.280 To brush bast that because that's real, that is so 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:39.559 so significant, not that you were, which you know, we 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:43.320 don't have any judgment on this show around what people 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.360 may have done and how they you know, what road 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:52.280 they traveled, but you weren't scamming and killing or any 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:57.920 of that. Your path to being incarcerated was because of 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.800 your involvement in the civil rights movement. 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:07.560 Yes, absolutely, and I think that to me, I'm always 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:11.800 indebted to my mentors. I had great mentors, Floyd Mchison 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:16.319 who founded the Conservational Quality you know, Marcaine the Kingdom 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:20.440 founded the Solitary's Leadership Conference. I used to drive I 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.959 told the car. Yes, I used to drive his father, 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:28.000 Cleave Sellers and Stoker Comack around when they were in Snick. 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.120 Because back in the day, you just want any one black, 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:33.319 oder says you in every black if it was black, 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:34.920 I'm in. You know what I'm saying. 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.560 That sounds like my parents and my life. How I 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:41.120 grew up in Harlem. We went to the Nation of Islam. 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:44.240 We went to National Action Network, we went to the 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.080 Black Church, we went to the street corners, we went 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.800 to anything that had to do with black empowerment. 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:51.319 At the slave theater. 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.120 My parents were dead, so it was one thing I 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:59.160 guess I should point out anthropologically and geneologically. I was 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:02.720 really blessed to me could and my son to be 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.520 born in a family. The land we live on in Oxton, 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:08.400 North Carolina has been in my family for over two 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:12.400 hundred years. My great great great great grandfather was the 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:15.240 Reverend John Chambers. He was the first brother to Bill 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:19.000 Dain as a presidter in minister. But what significant is 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.240 it was a freedom fighter. He was an educator. Now 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:25.520 this was before the Nat. Turner Insurrection. My grandfather was 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:29.520 born in seventeen sixty seven, fought in the Revolutionary War, 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:33.800 came an ordained minister, the educator. But in the early 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:39.360 nine eighteen thirty then Turner Insurrection happened. The state of Virginia, 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:41.760 the state of North Carolina, the state of South Carolina, 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:44.920 the state of Georgia, State of Alabama, and Statelissis passed 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.840 the law making it a fella and to teach black 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:51.640 Side to read and write a felon. So my great 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.600 great grandfather was an educator, so he set up an 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.760 underground school in Grandma County, my home county, Native County. 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:02.000 His county, and so he taught white students by day 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.760 and black students secretly by night. But they caught up 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:10.760 with him. My grandfather was beating the death back in 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.280 the day there were no cars. They had horse and bugget, 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.120 and they beat him to death, hid his body, cut 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:20.040 the head off of his horses, and took the head 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:25.520 of his horse to his wife. And we never found 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:29.240 his grade. They didn't want us to honor him in 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:31.640 a funeral. So I grew up with that kind of 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:34.680 history in my family. I come from a generation, yes, 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:38.680 of educators menisince i'man all they minister myself. But the 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:42.880 underlying common donative common denominated for the males and females 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:46.280 in my family were freedom fighters. So I had no choice, man, 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.040 you know. And I was in the fourth grade strip 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:53.000 uh uh. Going back to the first grade, I knew 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.440 what racism was and and and I knew that something 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:59.120 that we should not have been tolerated. So I was 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:02.480 one of the impatient. Yeah, I was impatient in my family. 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.520 And that's why by the time I was twelve, thirteen, fourteen, 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.080 I thought I was grown. I'm ready to get it on. 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:11.400 But get it on from the wisdom of the past, 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:13.840 and like I said, I had great mentors, and that's 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.800 when I try to be now to our brothers and 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:21.000 sisters today as a mentor, not just as a leader, 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.120 but as a mentor, because none of us will be 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:28.080 here forever. But while we are blessed to be here, 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:32.520 let's pass something on. Let's pass something wrong, so the 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.640 next generation won't have to go through the same things 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:36.520 that we go through. 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:42.360 You know, well, doctor Ben, before you go, before you 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.680 go forward on that because one of the reasons why 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.600 we wanted to talk with you today. As we sat 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:54.360 together last night in a very private meeting, you know, 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.520 I was thinking a lot about my son and I 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:01.080 have been talking about the history of this whole idea 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:05.200 of the Convention. Right, we know this is not the 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:10.840 first time in Convention history that there has been major 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:16.080 tension around different social issues. And the meeting that we 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.240 were at last night, we were specifically dealing with the 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:24.720 issue of black and Palestinian liberation and how our struggles 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:28.840 are intertwined. And it made me think so much about 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:33.480 nineteen sixty eight and the climate for which that particular 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.679 convention took place. And I know you have so much 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.960 that you can share with us about that, and so 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:42.320 just you know, want to give you, you know, an 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:48.320 opportunity to talk about nineteen sixty eight, who were the operators, 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.320 what was give us the team on what was going down. 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:56.480 I was a young youth delegate from all Calina, my 0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:00.719 home state, nineteen sixty eight. And keep in mind, the 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:07.400 nineteen six convention happened in the wake of doctor King's assassination. 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.920 They happened in the wake of Robert Kennedy's assessments. And 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:16.280 then you had Richard Nixon running for president with Spiro Agnue, 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:19.280 the former governor of Maryland, who were running on a 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.080 law and order campaign, and so lor and O. It 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.520 wasn't just with the Republicans the Democrats. Also. Mayor Dale 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:29.240 was a Democratic mayor, but he sik the police on 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:34.679 the protest, brutally beating people down as they tried to 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:37.639 exercise their person in the right. I was inside the 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:41.000 convention center and I was telling somebody last night to me, 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:47.359 what a change time brings. From sixty eight to two 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:51.000 thousand and four, we couldn't even we had to fight 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:53.399 even to get be able to sit down in a 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.040 convention in nineteen They didn't want black people to be delicates. 0:18:57.200 --> 0:18:59.440 They didn't want black people to be pages. They didn't 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:01.720 want black people to have a media station. They don't 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:05.120 want They were trying to exclude black folks in nineteen sixty. 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:09.159 In fact, Julian Bob finding Lou Hayman had to go 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.080 to court just to get the right to sit down 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.240 in the convention. So now we run in the convention. 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.600 Black women are running the convention. You know what I'm saying. 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:21.399 And a lot of times to me, I'm glad you 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:25.040 asked that question, because we live in the present and 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:31.360 sometimes the president evil overwhelms us or underwhelms us. Well, 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:35.080 we we think that what's happening today is suspended in 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:39.560 today's reality. But this is a long evolutionary struggle, you know, 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.399 even in the DNC. And let me just point something out, Uh, 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:48.960 the Democrats were the original white supremacists. And my home 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.240 state of North Carolina, the Democrats were the original white 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:57.080 supremacists who attacked women to North Carolina. Because blacks have 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:00.000 formed a fusion with the Republicans, look out the script 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.760 this flip. The Republican Party was once a part of Lincoln. 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:07.080 Now it's the party of the white supremacists. Now it's 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:13.159 the party of of of far white uh racism and 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:14.600 the semitism you just named. 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:17.960 Where was the switch again, sir? Because there's always. 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.359 Late late eighteen hundreds, okay, late. 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.919 Always this thing that the Republicans is actually the party 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:27.080 for black people, and this and that that you don't. 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.639 Know, y'all, No, no history. You got to know that history. 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:34.960 The script was flip flipped, you know. Uh. Jessic Hams 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.399 used to be a Democrat. He became a Republican with 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:41.080 the Desocrats. And UH. These are the people who fought 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.680 when Sturgood Marshingtom got the Brown Decision in nineteen such four, 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:50.080 UH saying that UH surrogate's schools was unconstitutional. You had 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:55.400 all these people who wanted to assassinate Tilgod Marshall, you know, 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:59.679 because of that litigation, because they didn't want black and 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:02.359 white kids toy ever go to school together. Because we 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:05.280 may find out something, and that is there's no such 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:09.600 thing as white superiority. There's no such thing in UH. 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:13.320 While it is an ideology of white supremacy, it's a 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:17.639 fake ideology. It has no substance, It has no answer 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:23.639 bout other than the brutal translantic slavery that they engage us. 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:25.880 And I want to plug a book that's coming out 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:28.480 in September to make I gotta get through my son, 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:32.639 uh Sayty Brown, one of our writers, and the Nytry 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:36.040 we just published, you know, it's coming out in September. 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:40.719 And the Translanta slave trade, because Translanta slatrade didn't just 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:45.480 started in sixteen nineteen, It started in fifteen hundreds. The 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:48.440 translation staty was going on one hundred years before they 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:52.600 brought the first slave to the Virginia shore. And this brutality, 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:57.400 this inhumanity, uh you know. So to me, going back 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:02.120 to Tamika's question, I'm honored just to witness what's going 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:06.160 on here, But it also means we have the responsibility 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:09.280 that what are those struggles, what are those alloness? We 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.280 should have? Well, what can we learn? What do we 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:14.840 know about the Middle East? What do we know about 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.800 nineteen forty eight? What do we know about the United Nations? 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:21.160 What do we know about World War two? My father 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:23.280 was a better than of World War One? Do we 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:27.280 know the sacrifice that Black troops made going to the 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:30.480 front line in France fighting for democracy and then they 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:33.399 get wounded and they can't even come back home on 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:35.720 the ship. They came back home on the ship the 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:40.479 German prisons. German prisons was treated better than black soldiers 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:43.760 who fought the Germans. I mean, all this stuff, and 0:22:43.800 --> 0:22:47.440 so I used to ask my fatsid dad, what's going on? 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:50.879 He said, sons, one day you understand and appreciate the 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:54.399 sacrifices that we made. We know that racism, but we 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:57.840 fought for America because hopefully one day America the chine 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:02.040 and yes, America is changing, but still ain't changing fast enough, 0:23:02.560 --> 0:23:05.679 you know, And that's our role. Each generation has to 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:10.200 push that envelope, push those questions and push that reelly. 0:23:10.240 --> 0:23:12.840 But at the same time, I am concerned about our 0:23:12.840 --> 0:23:16.560 state of consciousness as a people. You know, I was 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:20.159 involved in the Black Power when Look when I was 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:22.359 a kid. If you call somebody black, that was a 0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:25.560 cuss work, people will cut you out. They think we 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:28.359 were so ashamed of our blackness, would sure a claim 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:30.920 of our color, were so ashamed of I have was 0:23:31.040 --> 0:23:34.800 sure a shamed of our nose, our lips because let 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:36.600 me just chaw with you. When I was in the 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:39.840 first grade, even though there was a black elementary school 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:42.960 because of segregation, the white school system told us what 0:23:43.080 --> 0:23:45.359 books we had to read. So I learned how to 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:51.359